ABSTRACT
Recent research has shown how in every county anger against the depredations of soldiers on both sides mounted and aroused a desire for neutrality at almost any price. All the military writers of the time paid lip service to the importance of training and discipline. Prince Maurice of Orange, a highly successful general, thought that in drill and weapon training lay the secrets of victory. But so far as his troopers were concerned, Prince Rupert of the Rhine - Charles’s commander-in-chief after 1644, who, like Cromwell, was primarily a cavalry officer - does not appear to have done much training. The defeat of Sir William Waller at Cropredy Bridge and of the Earl of Essex at Lostwithiel by King Charles counterbalanced the Parliamentarian victory at Marston Moor. Oliver was invariably on the attack, carried forward, as he was convinced, by the wrath of God.
